Cat torture case results in 3-year sentence

Published 6:11 pm, Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A San Antonio man was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for his role in a series of bizarre cat mutilations three years ago that garnered national attention.

Jordan Scott Mitchell, 24, pleaded no contest to three counts of animal cruelty in February for the torture and death of three gray tabbies that were found duct taped to a piece of plywood near the Cibolo Creek Trails. Two had slit throats and another had been disemboweled.

Wednesday's hearing came less than a month after co-defendant Austin George Patterson, 21, was ordered to serve eight years in prison for the same cruelty charges.

During both hearings, the defendants acknowledged a fourth killing in which a cat was doused in gasoline and burned alive while tied to a tree. Both men also cited psychiatric problems that had haunted them since childhood and blamed the other for being a negative influence.

?Frankly, I don't know how you two found each other,? state District Judge Sid Harle told Mitchell as he announced the sentence. ?It might have been the perfect storm.?

Both men seemed to have loving families who tried to get them help, Harle said. But ?when the acting out starts to occur at this level, punishment has to happen,? he said.

Mitchell told police he stood by as Patterson coaxed the felines from families who posted ads on Craigslist seeking new homes for their pets, and he accompanied Patterson to Home Depot as they purchased plywood and nails. While Mitchell didn't participate in the mutilation or killings, he did help duct tape the animals and knew what Patterson was about to do to them, Mitchell said.

The two weren't so much friends as acquaintances ?co-existing in misery,? Mitchell testified Wednesday.

?I didn't want to be by myself, so I hung around him,? he said. ?I believe that with my depression and anxiety, it felt like nothing mattered. With Austin's anger and unbalanced emotions ? I fed off of his anger and it made me more angry.?

Defense attorney Brandon Hudson cited testimony from two psychologists who said Mitchell was a follower and didn't appear to show sociopathic tendencies. Deferred adjudication probation, he said, would allow for punishment without taking away from the progress Mitchell has made with new anxiety medication. ?Nothing should scare us of Jordan,? Hudson said. ?His mind is not so broken as to be a threat to society.?

Prosecutor Jason Garrahan asked for a six-year sentence, pointing out that the district attorney's office has received more than 500 letters from the public expressing disgust for the men's actions.

Mitchell will have to serve at least half of the sentence before being eligible for parole.